A benefits cheat claimed £50,000 for being agoraphobic – while flying around the world as a travel writer and tour guide, a court heard.

Tracy Johnson insisted she needed welfare support for her fear of open spaces despite living a ‘champagne lifestyle’ in some of the globe’s most popular holiday hotspots, prosecutors said.

Johnson, 52, went on trial accused of fraudulently claiming disability allowances while running her own tour guide agency in Argentina. The author, from Frome, Somerset, is said to have spent four months travelling through India, shopping in New York and sunning herself in Spain.

Tour guide: Tracy Johnson claimed she suffered from agoraphobia while she travelled the world, a court was told (Picture: Wales News Service)

At the same time, she was claiming benefits, insisting she was ‘a prisoner in my own home’ and needed physical and emotional support as well as services from a daily carer, Merthyr Tydfil crown court heard. Prosecutor Joanna James said: ‘Tracy Johnson was living the life that honest, decent, hard-working taxpayers could only dream of.

‘She said she was unable to live on a day-to-day basis because she was agoraphobic, suffered depression, hallucinations, anxiety, blackouts and post-traumatic stress disorder,’ added Ms James.

Johnson denies 13 charges including fraud, dishonestly making a false representation and dishonestly failing to report a change in circumstances. The trial continues.

Tracy Johnson has been accused of living a ‘champagne lifestyle’ while on benefits (Picture: Wales News Service)